XIV
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
With no heavenly guide, it is little wonder that I became confused
and lost in the labyrinthine maze of those mighty hills. What,
in reality, I did was to pass entirely through them and come out
above the valley upon the farther side. I know that I wandered
for a long time, until tired and hungry I came upon a small cave
in the face of the limestone formation which had taken the place
of the granite farther back.
The cave which took my fancy lay halfway up the precipitous side
of a lofty cliff. The way to it was such that I knew no extremely
formidable beast could frequent it, nor was it large enough to make
a comfortable habitat for any but the smaller mammals or reptiles.
Yet it was with the utmost caution that I crawled within its dark
interior.
Here I found a rather large chamber, lighted by a narrow cleft
in the rock above which let the sunlight filter in in sufficient
quantities partially to dispel the utter darkness which I had
expected. The cave was entirely empty, nor were there any signs of
its having been recently occupied. The opening was comparatively
small, so that after considerable effort I was able to lug up a
bowlder from the valley below which entirely blocked it.
Then I returned again to the valley for an armful of grasses and
on this trip was fortunate enough to knock over an orthopi, the
diminutive horse of Pellucidar, a little animal about the size of
a fox terrier, which abounds in all parts of the inner world. Thus,
with food and bedding I returned to my lair, where after a meal
of raw meat, to which I had now become quite accustomed, I dragged
the bowlder before the entrance and curled myself upon a bed of
grasses--a naked, primeval, cave man, as savagely primitive as my
prehistoric progenitors.
I awoke rested but hungry, and pushing the bowlder aside crawled
out upon the little rocky shelf which was my front porch. Before
me spread a small but beautiful valley, through the center of which
a clear and sparkling river wound its way down to an inland sea,
the blue waters of which were just visible between the two mountain
ranges which embraced this little paradise. The sides of the
opposite hills were green with verdure, for a great forest clothed
them to the foot of the red and yellow and copper green of the towering
crags which formed their summit. The valley itself was carpeted
with a luxuriant grass, while here and there patches of wild flowers
made great splashes of vivid color against the prevailing green.
Dotted over the face of the valley were little clusters of palmlike
trees--three or four together as a rule. Beneath these stood
antelope, while others grazed in the open, or wandered gracefully
to a near-by ford to drink. There were several species of this
beautiful animal, the most magnificent somewhat resembling the giant
eland of Africa, except that their spiral horns form a complete
curve backward over their ears and then forward again beneath
them, ending in sharp and formidable points some two feet before
the face and above the eyes. In size they remind one of a pure
bred Hereford bull, yet they are very agile and fast. The broad
yellow bands that stripe the dark roan of their coats made me take
them for zebra when I first saw them. All in all they are handsome
animals, and added the finishing touch to the strange and lovely
landscape that spread before my new home.
I had determined to make the cave my headquarters, and with it as
a base make a systematic exploration of the surrounding country in
search of the land of Sari. First I devoured the remainder of the
carcass of the orthopi I had killed before my last sleep. Then I
hid the Great Secret in a deep niche at the back of my cave, rolled
the bowlder before my front door, and with bow, arrows, sword, and
shield scrambled down into the peaceful valley.
The grazing herds moved to one side as I passed through them, the
little orthopi evincing the greatest wariness and galloping to
safest distances. All the animals stopped feeding as I approached,
and after moving to what they considered a safe distance stood
contemplating me with serious eyes and up-cocked ears. Once one
of the old bull antelopes of the striped species lowered his head
and bellowed angrily--even taking a few steps in my direction,
so that I thought he meant to charge; but after I had passed, he
resumed feeding as though nothing had disturbed him.
Near the lower end of the valley I passed a number of tapirs, and
across the river saw a great sadok, the enormous double-horned
progenitor of the modern rhinoceros. At the valley's end the
cliffs upon the left ran out into the sea, so that to pass around
them as I desired to do it was necessary to scale them in search of
a ledge along which I might continue my journey. Some fifty feet
from the base I came upon a projection which formed a natural path
along the face of the cliff, and this I followed out over the sea
toward the cliff's end.
Here the ledge inclined rapidly upward toward the top of the
cliffs--the stratum which formed it evidently having been forced up
at this steep angle when the mountains behind it were born. As I
climbed carefully up the ascent my attention suddenly was attracted
aloft by the sound of strange hissing, and what resembled the
flapping of wings.
And at the first glance there broke upon my horrified vision the
most frightful thing I had seen even within Pellucidar. It was a
giant dragon such as is pictured in the legends and fairy tales of
earth folk. Its huge body must have measured forty feet in length,
while the batlike wings that supported it in midair had a spread of
fully thirty. Its gaping jaws were armed with long, sharp teeth,
and its claw equipped with horrible talons.
The hissing noise which had first attracted my attention was issuing
from its throat, and seemed to be directed at something beyond
and below me which I could not see. The ledge upon which I stood
terminated abruptly a few paces farther on, and as I reached the
end I saw the cause of the reptile's agitation.
Some time in past ages an earthquake had produced a fault at this
point, so that beyond the spot where I stood the strata had slipped
down a matter of twenty feet. The result was that the continuation
of my ledge lay twenty feet below me, where it ended as abruptly
as did the end upon which I stood.
And here, evidently halted in flight by this insurmountable break
in the ledge, stood the object of the creature's attack--a girl
cowering upon the narrow platform, her face buried in her arms, as
though to shut out the sight of the frightful death which hovered
just above her.
The dragon was circling lower, and seemed about to dart in upon
its prey. There was no time to be lost, scarce an instant in which
to weigh the possible chances that I had against the awfully armed
creature; but the sight of that frightened girl below me called
out to all that was best in me, and the instinct for protection
of the other sex, which nearly must have equaled the instinct of
self-preservation in primeval man, drew me to the girl's side like
an irresistible magnet.
Almost thoughtless of the consequences, I leaped from the end of
the ledge upon which I stood, for the tiny shelf twenty feet below.
At the same instant the dragon darted in toward the girl, but my
sudden advent upon the scene must have startled him for he veered
to one side, and then rose above us once more.
The noise I made as I landed beside her convinced the girl that the
end had come, for she thought I was the dragon; but finally when
no cruel fangs closed upon her she raised her eyes in astonishment.
As they fell upon me the expression that came into them would be
difficult to describe; but her feelings could scarcely have been
one whit more complicated than my own--for the wide eyes that looked
into mine were those of Dian the Beautiful.
"Dian!" I cried. "Dian! Thank God that I came in time."
"You?" she whispered, and then she hid her face again; nor could
I tell whether she were glad or angry that I had come.
Once more the dragon was sweeping toward us, and so rapidly that I
had no time to unsling my bow. All that I could do was to snatch
up a rock, and hurl it at the thing's hideous face. Again my aim
was true, and with a hiss of pain and rage the reptile wheeled once
more and soared away.
Quickly I fitted an arrow now that I might be ready at the
next attack, and as I did so I looked down at the girl, so that I
surprised her in a surreptitious glance which she was stealing at
me; but immediately, she again covered her face with her hands.
"Look at me, Dian," I pleaded. "Are you not glad to see me?"
She looked straight into my eyes.
"I hate you," she said, and then, as I was about to beg for a fair
hearing she pointed over my shoulder. "The thipdar comes," she
said, and I turned again to meet the reptile.
So this was a thipdar. I might have known it. The cruel bloodhound
of the Mahars. The long-extinct pterodactyl of the outer world.
But this time I met it with a weapon it never had faced before. I
had selected my longest arrow, and with all my strength had bent
the bow until the very tip of the shaft rested upon the thumb of
my left hand, and then as the great creature darted toward us I
let drive straight for that tough breast.
Hissing like the escape valve of a steam engine, the mighty creature
fell turning and twisting into the sea below, my arrow buried
completely in its carcass. I turned toward the girl. She was
looking past me. It was evident that she had seen the thipdar die.
"Dian," I said, "won't you tell me that you are not sorry that I
have found you?"
"I hate you," was her only reply; but I imagined that there was less
vehemence in it than before--yet it might have been but my imagination.
"Why do you hate me, Dian?" I asked, but she did not answer me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, "and what has happened to you
since Hooja freed you from the Sagoths?"
At first I thought that she was going to ignore me entirely, but
finally she thought better of it.
"I was again running away from Jubal the Ugly One," she said.
"After I escaped from the Sagoths I made my way alone back to my
own land; but on account of Jubal I did not dare enter the villages
or let any of my friends know that I had returned for fear that
Jubal might find out. By watching for a long time I found that my
brother had not yet returned, and so I continued to live in a cave
beside a valley which my race seldom frequents, awaiting the time
that he should come back and free me from Jubal.
"But at last one of Jubal's hunters saw me as I was creeping toward
my father's cave to see if my brother had yet returned and he gave
the alarm and Jubal set out after me. He has been pursuing me
across many lands. He cannot be far behind me now. When he comes
he will kill you and carry me back to his cave. He is a terrible
man. I have gone as far as I can go, and there is no escape," and
she looked hopelessly up at the continuation of the ledge twenty
feet above us.
"But he shall not have me," she suddenly cried, with great vehemence.
"The sea is there"--she pointed over the edge of the cliff--"and
the sea shall have me rather than Jubal."
"But I have you now Dian," I cried; "nor shall Jubal, nor any other
have you, for you are mine," and I seized her hand, nor did I lift
it above her head and let it fall in token of release.
She had risen to her feet, and was looking straight into my eyes
with level gaze.
"I do not believe you," she said, "for if you meant it you would
have done this when the others were present to witness it--then I
should truly have been your mate; now there is no one to see you
do it, for you know that without witnesses your act does not bind
you to me," and she withdrew her hand from mine and turned away.
I tried to convince her that I was sincere, but she simply couldn't
forget the humiliation that I had put upon her on that other
occasion.
"If you mean all that you say you will have ample chance to prove
it," she said, "if Jubal does not catch and kill you. I am in your
power, and the treatment you accord me will be the best proof of
your intentions toward me. I am not your mate, and again I tell
you that I hate you, and that I should be glad if I never saw you
again."
Dian certainly was candid. There was no gainsaying that. In fact
I found candor and directness to be quite a marked characteristic
of the cave men of Pellucidar. Finally I suggested that we make
some attempt to gain my cave, where we might escape the searching
Jubal, for I am free to admit that I had no considerable desire to
meet the formidable and ferocious creature, of whose mighty prowess
Dian had told me when I first met her. He it was who, armed with
a puny knife, had met and killed a cave bear in a hand-to-hand
struggle. It was Jubal who could cast his spear entirely through
the armored carcass of the sadok at fifty paces. It was he who
had crushed the skull of a charging dyryth with a single blow of
his war club. No, I was not pining to meet the Ugly One-and it
was quite certain that I should not go out and hunt for him; but
the matter was taken out of my hands very quickly, as is often the
way, and I did meet Jubal the Ugly One face to face.
This is how it happened. I had led Dian back along the ledge the
way she had come, searching for a path that would lead us to the
top of the cliff, for I knew that we could then cross over to the
edge of my own little valley, where I felt certain we should find
a means of ingress from the cliff top. As we proceeded along the
ledge I gave Dian minute directions for finding my cave against
the chance of something happening to me. I knew that she would be
quite safely hidden away from pursuit once she gained the shelter
of my lair, and the valley would afford her ample means of sustenance.
Also, I was very much piqued by her treatment of me. My heart was
sad and heavy, and I wanted to make her feel badly by suggesting
that something terrible might happen to me--that I might, in fact,
be killed. But it didn't work worth a cent, at least as far as I
could perceive. Dian simply shrugged those magnificent shoulders
of hers, and murmured something to the effect that one was not rid
of trouble so easily as that.
For a while I kept still. I was utterly squelched. And to think
that I had twice protected her from attack--the last time risking
my life to save hers. It was incredible that even a daughter of
the Stone Age could be so ungrateful--so heartless; but maybe her
heart partook of the qualities of her epoch.
Presently we found a rift in the cliff which had been widened and
extended by the action of the water draining through it from the
plateau above. It gave us a rather rough climb to the summit,
but finally we stood upon the level mesa which stretched back for
several miles to the mountain range. Behind us lay the broad inland
sea, curving upward in the horizonless distance to merge into the
blue of the sky, so that for all the world it looked as though the
sea lapped back to arch completely over us and disappear beyond
the distant mountains at our backs--the weird and uncanny aspect
of the seascapes of Pellucidar balk description.
At our right lay a dense forest, but to the left the country was
open and clear to the plateau's farther verge. It was in this
direction that our way led, and we had turned to resume our journey
when Dian touched my arm. I turned to her, thinking that she was
about to make peace overtures; but I was mistaken.
"Jubal," she said, and nodded toward the forest.
I looked, and there, emerging from the dense wood, came a perfect
whale of a man. He must have been seven feet tall, and proportioned
accordingly. He still was too far off to distinguish his features.
"Run," I said to Dian. "I can engage him until you get a good
start. Maybe I can hold him until you have gotten entirely away,"
and then, without a backward glance, I advanced to meet the Ugly
One. I had hoped that Dian would have a kind word to say to me
before she went, for she must have known that I was going to my death
for her sake; but she never even so much as bid me good-bye, and it
was with a heavy heart that I strode through the flower-bespangled
grass to my doom.
When I had come close enough to Jubal to distinguish his features
I understood how it was that he had earned the sobriquet of Ugly
One. Apparently some fearful beast had ripped away one entire
side of his face. The eye was gone, the nose, and all the flesh,
so that his jaws and all his teeth were exposed and grinning through
the horrible scar.
Formerly he may have been as good to look upon as the others of
his handsome race, and it may be that the terrible result of this
encounter had tended to sour an already strong and brutal character.
However this may be it is quite certain that he was not a pretty
sight, and now that his features, or what remained of them, were
distorted in rage at the sight of Dian with another male, he was
indeed most terrible to see--and much more terrible to meet.
He had broken into a run now, and as he advanced he raised his
mighty spear, while I halted and fitting an arrow to my bow took
as steady aim as I could. I was somewhat longer than usual, for I
must confess that the sight of this awful man had wrought upon my
nerves to such an extent that my knees were anything but steady.
What chance had I against this mighty warrior for whom even the
fiercest cave bear had no terrors! Could I hope to best one who
slaughtered the sadok and dyryth singlehanded! I shuddered; but,
in fairness to myself, my fear was more for Dian than for my own
fate.
And then the great brute launched his massive stone-tipped spear,
and I raised my shield to break the force of its terrific velocity.
The impact hurled me to my knees, but the shield had deflected the
missile and I was unscathed. Jubal was rushing upon me now with the
only remaining weapon that he carried--a murderous-looking knife.
He was too close for a careful bowshot, but I let drive at him as
he came, without taking aim. My arrow pierced the fleshy part of
his thigh, inflicting a painful but not disabling wound. And then
he was upon me.
My agility saved me for the instant. I ducked beneath his raised
arm, and when he wheeled to come at me again he found a sword's
point in his face. And a moment later he felt an inch or two of
it in the muscles of his knife arm, so that thereafter he went more
warily.
It was a duel of strategy now--the great, hairy man maneuvering
to get inside my guard where he could bring those giant thews to
play, while my wits were directed to the task of keeping him at
arm's length. Thrice he rushed me, and thrice I caught his knife
blow upon my shield. Each time my sword found his body--once
penetrating to his lung. He was covered with blood by this time,
and the internal hemorrhage induced paroxysms of coughing that
brought the red stream through the hideous mouth and nose, covering
his face and breast with bloody froth. He was a most unlovely
spectacle, but he was far from dead.
As the duel continued I began to gain confidence, for, to be
perfectly candid, I had not expected to survive the first rush of
that monstrous engine of ungoverned rage and hatred. And I think
that Jubal, from utter contempt of me, began to change to a feeling
of respect, and then in his primitive mind there evidently loomed
the thought that perhaps at last he had met his master, and was
facing his end.
At any rate it is only upon this hypothesis that I can account for
his next act, which was in the nature of a last resort--a sort of
forlorn hope, which could only have been born of the belief that
if he did not kill me quickly I should kill him. It happened on
the occasion of his fourth charge, when, instead of striking at me
with his knife, he dropped that weapon, and seizing my sword blade
in both his hands wrenched the weapon from my grasp as easily as
from a babe.
Flinging it far to one side he stood motionless for just an instant
glaring into my face with such a horrid leer of malignant triumph
as to almost unnerve me--then he sprang for me with his bare hands.
But it was Jubal's day to learn new methods of warfare. For the
first time he had seen a bow and arrows, never before that duel had
he beheld a sword, and now he learned what a man who knows may do
with his bare fists.
As he came for me, like a great bear, I ducked again beneath his
outstretched arm, and as I came up planted as clean a blow upon
his jaw as ever you have seen. Down went that great mountain of
flesh sprawling upon the ground. He was so surprised and dazed
that he lay there for several seconds before he made any attempt to
rise, and I stood over him with another dose ready when he should
gain his knees.
Up he came at last, almost roaring in his rage and mortification;
but he didn't stay up--I let him have a left fair on the point of
the jaw that sent him tumbling over on his back. By this time I
think Jubal had gone mad with hate, for no sane man would have come
back for more as many times as he did. Time after time I bowled
him over as fast as he could stagger up, until toward the last he
lay longer on the ground between blows, and each time came up weaker
than before.
He was bleeding very profusely now from the wound in his lungs, and
presently a terrific blow over the heart sent him reeling heavily
to the ground, where he lay very still, and somehow I knew at once
that Jubal the Ugly One would never get up again. But even as I
looked upon that massive body lying there so grim and terrible in
death, I could not believe that I, single-handed, had bested this
slayer of fearful beasts--this gigantic ogre of the Stone Age.
Picking up my sword I leaned upon it, looking down on the dead
body of my foeman, and as I thought of the battle I had just fought
and won a great idea was born in my brain--the outcome of this and
the suggestion that Perry had made within the city of Phutra. If
skill and science could render a comparative pygmy the master of
this mighty brute, what could not the brute's fellows accomplish
with the same skill and science. Why all Pellucidar would be at
their feet--and I would be their king and Dian their queen.
Dian! A little wave of doubt swept over me. It was quite within
the possibilities of Dian to look down upon me even were I king.
She was quite the most superior person I ever had met--with the most
convincing way of letting you know that she was superior. Well,
I could go to the cave, and tell her that I had killed Jubal, and
then she might feel more kindly toward me, since I had freed her
of her tormentor. I hoped that she had found the cave easily--it
would be terrible had I lost her again, and I turned to gather up
my shield and bow to hurry after her, when to my astonishment I
found her standing not ten paces behind me.
"Girl!" I cried, "what are you doing here? I thought that you had
gone to the cave, as I told you to do."
Up went her head, and the look that she gave me took all the majesty
out of me, and left me feeling more like the palace janitor--if
palaces have janitors.
"As you told me to do!" she cried, stamping her little foot. "I
do as I please. I am the daughter of a king, and furthermore, I
hate you."
I was dumbfounded--this was my thanks for saving her from Jubal!
I turned and looked at the corpse. "May be that I saved you from
a worse fate, old man," I said, but I guess it was lost on Dian,
for she never seemed to notice it at all.
"Let us go to my cave," I said, "I am tired and hungry."
She followed along a pace behind me, neither of us speaking. I
was too angry, and she evidently didn't care to converse with the
lower orders. I was mad all the way through, as I had certainly
felt that at least a word of thanks should have rewarded me, for
I knew that even by her own standards, I must have done a very
wonderful thing to have killed the redoubtable Jubal in a hand-to-hand
encounter.
We had no difficulty in finding my lair, and then I went down into
the valley and bowled over a small antelope, which I dragged up the
steep ascent to the ledge before the door. Here we ate in silence.
Occasionally I glanced at her, thinking that the sight of her tearing
at raw flesh with her hands and teeth like some wild animal would
cause a revulsion of my sentiments toward her; but to my surprise
I found that she ate quite as daintily as the most civilized woman
of my acquaintance, and finally I found myself gazing in foolish
rapture at the beauties of her strong, white teeth. Such is love.
After our repast we went down to the river together and bathed
our hands and faces, and then after drinking our fill went back to
the cave. Without a word I crawled into the farthest corner and,
curling up, was soon asleep.
When I awoke I found Dian sitting in the doorway looking out across
the valley. As I came out she moved to one side to let me pass,
but she had no word for me. I wanted to hate her, but I couldn't.
Every time I looked at her something came up in my throat, so that
I nearly choked. I had never been in love before, but I did not
need any aid in diagnosing my case--I certainly had it and had it
bad. God, how I loved that beautiful, disdainful, tantalizing,
prehistoric girl!
After we had eaten again I asked Dian if she intended returning to
her tribe now that Jubal was dead, but she shook her head sadly,
and said that she did not dare, for there was still Jubal's brother
to be considered--his oldest brother.
"What has he to do with it?" I asked. "Does he too want you, or
has the option on you become a family heirloom, to be passed on
down from generation to generation?"
She was not quite sure as to what I meant.
"It is probable," she said, "that they all will want revenge for
the death of Jubal--there are seven of them--seven terrible men.
Someone may have to kill them all, if I am to return to my people."
It began to look as though I had assumed a contract much too large
for me--about seven sizes, in fact.
"Had Jubal any cousins?" I asked. It was just as well to know the
worst at once.
"Yes," replied Dian, "but they don't count--they all have mates.
Jubal's brothers have no mates because Jubal could get none for
himself. He was so ugly that women ran away from him--some have
even thrown themselves from the cliffs of Amoz into the Darel Az
rather than mate with the Ugly One."
"But what had that to do with his brothers?" I asked.
"I forget that you are not of Pellucidar," said Dian, with a look
of pity mixed with contempt, and the contempt seemed to be laid
on a little thicker than the circumstance warranted--as though to
make quite certain that I shouldn't overlook it. "You see," she
continued, "a younger brother may not take a mate until all his
older brothers have done so, unless the older brother waives his
prerogative, which Jubal would not do, knowing that as long as
he kept them single they would be all the keener in aiding him to
secure a mate."
Noticing that Dian was becoming more communicative I began to entertain
hopes that she might be warming up toward me a bit, although upon
what slender thread I hung my hopes I soon discovered.
"As you dare not return to Amoz," I ventured, "what is to become of
you since you cannot be happy here with me, hating me as you do?"
"I shall have to put up with you," she replied coldly, "until you
see fit to go elsewhere and leave me in peace, then I shall get
along very well alone."
I looked at her in utter amazement. It seemed incredible that even
a prehistoric woman could be so cold and heartless and ungrateful.
Then I arose.
"I shall leave you NOW," I said haughtily, "I have had quite enough
of your ingratitude and your insults," and then I turned and strode
majestically down toward the valley. I had taken a hundred steps
in absolute silence, and then Dian spoke.
"I hate you!" she shouted, and her voice broke--in rage, I thought.
I was absolutely miserable, but I hadn't gone too far when I began
to realize that I couldn't leave her alone there without protection,
to hunt her own food amid the dangers of that savage world. She
might hate me, and revile me, and heap indignity after indignity
upon me, as she already had, until I should have hated her; but
the pitiful fact remained that I loved her, and I couldn't leave
her there alone.
The more I thought about it the madder I got, so that by the time
I reached the valley I was furious, and the result of it was that
I turned right around and went up that cliff again as fast as I
had come down. I saw that Dian had left the ledge and gone within
the cave, but I bolted right in after her. She was lying upon her
face on the pile of grasses I had gathered for her bed. When she
heard me enter she sprang to her feet like a tigress.
"I hate you!" she cried.
Coming from the brilliant light of the noonday sun into the
semidarkness of the cave I could not see her features, and I was
rather glad, for I disliked to think of the hate that I should have
read there.
I never said a word to her at first. I just strode across the
cave and grasped her by the wrists, and when she struggled, I put
my arm around her so as to pinion her hands to her sides. She
fought like a tigress, but I took my free hand and pushed her head
back--I imagine that I had suddenly turned brute, that I had gone
back a thousand million years, and was again a veritable cave man
taking my mate by force--and then I kissed that beautiful mouth
again and again.
"Dian," I cried, shaking her roughly, "I love you. Can't you
understand that I love you? That I love you better than all else
in this world or my own? That I am going to have you? That love
like mine cannot be denied?"
I noticed that she lay very still in my arms now, and as my eyes
became accustomed to the light I saw that she was smiling--a very
contented, happy smile. I was thunderstruck. Then I realized that,
very gently, she was trying to disengage her arms, and I loosened
my grip upon them so that she could do so. Slowly they came up and
stole about my neck, and then she drew my lips down to hers once
more and held them there for a long time. At last she spoke.
"Why didn't you do this at first, David? I have been waiting so
long."
"What!" I cried. "You said that you hated me!"
"Did you expect me to run into your arms, and say that I loved you
before I knew that you loved me?" she asked.
"But I have told you right along that I love you," I said. "Love
speaks in acts," she replied. "You could have made your mouth say
what you wished it to say, but just now when you came and took me
in your arms your heart spoke to mine in the language that a woman's
heart understands. What a silly man you are, David?"
"Then you haven't hated me at all, Dian?" I asked.
"I have loved you always," she whispered, "from the first moment
that I saw you, although I did not know it until that time you
struck down Hooja the Sly One, and then spurned me."
"But I didn't spurn you, dear," I cried. "I didn't know your
ways--I doubt if I do now. It seems incredible that you could have
reviled me so, and yet have cared for me all the time."
"You might have known," she said, "when I did not run away from
you that it was not hate which chained me to you. While you were
battling with Jubal, I could have run to the edge of the forest,
and when I learned the outcome of the combat it would have been a
simple thing to have eluded you and returned to my own people."
"But Jubal's brothers--and cousins--" I reminded her, "how about
them?"
She smiled, and hid her face on my shoulder.
"I had to tell you SOMETHING, David," she whispered. "I must needs
have SOME excuse for remaining near you."
"You little sinner!" I exclaimed. "And you have caused me all this
anguish for nothing!"
"I have suffered even more," she answered simply, "for I thought
that you did not love me, and I was helpless. I couldn't come
to you and demand that my love be returned, as you have just come
to me. Just now when you went away hope went with you. I was
wretched, terrified, miserable, and my heart was breaking. I wept,
and I have not done that before since my mother died," and now I
saw that there was the moisture of tears about her eyes. It was
near to making me cry myself when I thought of all that poor child
had been through. Motherless and unprotected; hunted across a
savage, primeval world by that hideous brute of a man; exposed to
the attacks of the countless fearsome denizens of its mountains,
its plains, and its jungles--it was a miracle that she had survived
it all.
To me it was a revelation of the things my early forebears must
have endured that the human race of the outer crust might survive.
It made me very proud to think that I had won the love of such
a woman. Of course she couldn't read or write; there was nothing
cultured or refined about her as you judge culture and refinement;
but she was the essence of all that is best in woman, for she was
good, and brave, and noble, and virtuous. And she was all these
things in spite of the fact that their observance entailed suffering
and danger and possible death.
How much easier it would have been to have gone to Jubal in the
first place! She would have been his lawful mate. She would have
been queen in her own land--and it meant just as much to the cave
woman to be a queen in the Stone Age as it does to the woman of
today to be a queen now; it's all comparative glory any way you
look at it, and if there were only half-naked savages on the outer
crust today, you'd find that it would be considerable glory to be
the wife a Dahomey chief.
I couldn't help but compare Dian's action with that of a splendid
young woman I had known in New York--I mean splendid to look at
and to talk to. She had been head over heels in love with a chum
of mine--a clean, manly chap--but she had married a broken-down,
disreputable old debauchee because he was a count in some dinky
little European principality that was not even accorded a distinctive
color by Rand McNally.
Yes, I was mighty proud of Dian.
After a time we decided to set out for Sari, as I was anxious to
see Perry, and to know that all was right with him. I had told
Dian about our plan of emancipating the human race of Pellucidar,
and she was fairly wild over it. She said that if Dacor, her
brother, would only return he could easily be king of Amoz, and
that then he and Ghak could form an alliance. That would give us
a flying start, for the Sarians and the Amozites were both very
powerful tribes. Once they had been armed with swords, and bows
and arrows, and trained in their use we were confident that they
could overcome any tribe that seemed disinclined to join the great
army of federated states with which we were planning to march upon
the Mahars.
I explained the various destructive engines of war which Perry
and I could construct after a little experimentation--gunpowder,
rifles, cannon, and the like, and Dian would clap her hands, and
throw her arms about my neck, and tell me what a wonderful thing
I was. She was beginning to think that I was omnipotent although
I really hadn't done anything but talk--but that is the way with
women when they love. Perry used to say that if a fellow was
one-tenth as remarkable as his wife or mother thought him, he would
have the world by the tail with a down-hill drag.
The first time we started for Sari I stepped into a nest of poisonous
vipers before we reached the valley. A little fellow stung me on
the ankle, and Dian made me come back to the cave. She said that
I mustn't exercise, or it might prove fatal--if it had been a
full-grown snake that struck me she said, I wouldn't have moved a
single pace from the nest--I'd have died in my tracks, so virulent
is the poison. As it was I must have been laid up for quite a
while, though Dian's poultices of herbs and leaves finally reduced
the swelling and drew out the poison.
The episode proved most fortunate, however, as it gave me an idea
which added a thousand-fold to the value of my arrows as missiles
of offense and defense. As soon as I was able to be about again,
I sought out some adult vipers of the species which had stung me,
and having killed them, I extracted their virus, smearing it upon
the tips of several arrows. Later I shot a hyaenodon with one of
these, and though my arrow inflicted but a superficial flesh wound
the beast crumpled in death almost immediately after he was hit.
We now set out once more for the land of the Sarians, and it was with
feelings of sincere regret that we bade good-bye to our beautiful
Garden of Eden, in the comparative peace and harmony of which we
had lived the happiest moments of our lives. How long we had been
there I did not know, for as I have told you, time had ceased to
exist for me beneath that eternal noonday sun--it may have been an
hour, or a month of earthly time; I do not know.
